Shadow Puppets
by Denshi98
Summary: Far in the future, where the tales of Ash and his friends are just a myth, the world of Pokemon has gotten a bit more realistic. Gun violence and serious crimes constantly take place and the only protection people have are themselves. A Pokemon would never even consider hurting a human. Until now at least. Where shadow Pokemon are being made once again. AU
1. Chapter 1

"That is completely ridiculous, how could ten year olds go out and travel the world all by themselves." I thought to myself while staring at the muted television sitting in my living room.

I was remembering what we had learned in school a couple years back before I had finally graduated. The old tale of Ash and his friends leaving their homes at the age of ten and traveling the world together with their Pokemon, meeting all types of unique people along the way as they pushed themselves to get gym badges and help others.

"How did they know how to make a campfire or cook their food over it? Were they all just born with natural survival skills?"

None of it really made any sense. It was obviously just a made up story that was told over the years. The idea of a someone with the mind of a ten year old to leave home and travel the world was completely impossible.

The gym leaders were all grown men and women with professional licenses for their jobs so for them to be beaten by someone with so little knowledge would make them a disgrace. Not only that but if everyone left their home at ten years old with their pokemon no jobs would be created and nobody would have a proper education, how could businesses run without workers? Does food just show up at the grocery store randomly for you to pick out? of course not. The economy would be completely destroyed if these old tales were true.

I had been staring at this tv for far too long in deep thought over such a stupid topic. It was on some news channel and they seemed to be having a discussion about something bad that has been going on, I wasn't actually paying attention to it as usual. Crimes happening in a big city is typical and isn't anything worth wasting my time on.

My name is Kye, I keep to myself mostly, only talking to people when needed. I'm not shy I just don't see and need to constantly communicate. Rather I just always get lost in deep thought about completely random things.

I scratched my dark brown hair and then rubbed my eyes so I could adjust to the darkness in the room. Zoro was leaned up against me with his mouth wide open snoring. Zoro was a Sneasel, he was my first pokemon and I loved him. He was my only true friend and the only one I ever talked to about how I felt. We also talked about my random thoughts throughout the day such as the one about the old Ash tale I was going on about earlier. We lived together in my apartment alone. Except for my one other pokemon that was actually normal and prefered to stay in its pokeball when not battling. It was my Sableye who I just called Sal.

I got up slowly to not wake Zoro and then walked to my bedroom to get undressed. I had work again tomorrow so I needed to get to bed at a reasonable hour, I learned that from plenty of long school days were I had stayed up half the night goofing off on the internet and feeling miserable the next day. I got under the covers and closed my eyes knowing tomorrow was just going to be another day on the job. I sighed and dozed off to sleep.

The next morning I woke up just like any regular week day and got ready to leave for work. I peeked into the living room to find Zoro still asleep except for this time he was laying on the ground with his face to the floor.

Must have fallen over some time after I had gotten up. I smirked and then tiptoed back toward the hallway where my room and bathroom was so I could take a shower and brush my teeth.

When I was finished I came into find Zoro now sitting up yawning with a sleepy gaze in his eyes. "Did you have a good nap?" I asked in a baby voice. I was now preparing myself a piece of toast. Zoro shot me a death glare that was clearly saying for me to back off before he kills me so I did while grinning thinking of how he was always like this in the morning.

I have had Zoro since he was first hatched except it happened a little different than the normal procedure. Most people living in city areas nowadays will get there pokemon from a shop selling pokemon eggs.

Eggs are hatched when the holder takes a certain amount of steps while with it, the number changes depending on the pokemon. the eggs in the shops have already been pre walked and are ready to hatch with only a few more steps that the buyer of the egg will be able to complete. Some eggs end up being duds and are thrown out and destroyed. That just so happens to be where I met Zoro.

When I had just started highschool I happened to walk buy a store that sold eggs when I saw a man take an egg out to a dumpster.

When he left and walked back into the store through the back entrance I decided to take the egg and put it in my bag. I'm not quite sure why I decided to do that. maybe I had hoped that the egg would mysteriously hatch even though it was dead. I guess I was just desperate for a pokemon since I had none at the time and was too poor to buy one.

Soon enough on my way back home I felt something ruffling in my bag and when I opened it I found a half opened egg with a sneasel making its way out of it. I guess that the store made a mistake on the number of steps the holder had taken and thought that he was a dud but the truth was he only needed more steps.

I had decided to name him Zoro because the popular anime "One Piece" had a character with that name in it and I always thought it was cool, it suited the Sneasel as well because of his sharp sword-like claws.

I then snapped back into reality to find Zoro sitting on the couch watching the tv screen with my piece of toast in his mouth. He for some reason only has that funny joking personality around me, probably because i'm the only one he feels comfortable around. When he is near anyone else he is very defensive and quiet, constantly on the look out. I'm the same way though so I understand why he's like that. Especially when living in a big city where crime is always running rampant.

I grabbed what was left of the toast Zoro had taken from me and started toward the door. Zoro stuck out his tongue with a smile and followed.

We arrived at the subway station to catch the train to work. This area is always crowded and it made Zoro uncomfortable so I pulled out his pokeball and showed it to him offering if he wanted to go but he refused as usual and climbed on my shoulder while moving his head back and forth observing all around him. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

We made our way on to the correct train and took a seat. Soon after, the train started moving. Far away on the other side of the train was a police officer. they often rode the train because of this city's high crime rates and were authorized to.

My eyes made there way down to his gun and my mind went into deep thought once again.

"There never seem to be any old stories where guns were involved, not even mentioned really." I started thinking to myself.

It's as if crime never happened and when something bad was happening like the old myth of Team Rocket trying to steal a pokemon they would just have a pokemon battle and if they lost they would just give up.

Everyone knows pokemon will only fight pokemon, that's why they aren't used as protection against other people. Rather they are used as a sport for battling and things like that. So without having pokemon to fight for you people use guns to solve their problems.

"There was always that fairytale myth about some guys called Team Snagem in the Orre region who found a way to make a creation called shadow pokemon" I remembered.

They would use some kind of pokeball to capture any pokemon, even a trainers, and then use a machine to turn it evil so that it would attack anything under their command. They could also attack people.

This made me shudder at the thought and pulled me back to reality. I looked at Zoro and noticed his eyes targeting a man who was looking directly back at him. Only the man seemed to be looking through Zoro, rubbing his chin with his legs crossed trying to observe Zoro's skill level. At Least that's what I picked up from looking at his odd posterior.

He then without turning his head says something to the very big man sitting next to him. The big man nodded while he continued to keep his eyes focused on the floor.

"These guys seem up to no good" I whispered to Zoro.

He nods keeping eye contact with the man. The train slowed down and came to a stopping point.

I stand up quickly and wait at the door to leave. The door opens and I start walking out. I then feel a hand on my shoulder that Zoro is not sitting on and freeze.

Author's Note- Thanks for reading. This is the first story I've ever written. Please tell me what you enjoyed about it and what is bad but keep in mind that this is my first go at writing, Thanks. - Eli


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch.2**

"Hey boy, can I talk to you for a second?"

I turn around to see the man that was eyeing down Zoro now looking at me. I feel Zoro tense up.

"uhhhh, sorry but i'm kind of in a rush" I lie to him hoping he will just leave me alone.

He began to open his mouth about to say something else when he notices the cop that I had saw earlier staring at him with his hand over his walkie-talkie.

He closes his mouth and is silent for a moment before starting again.

"Do you ride this route often?" He asks.

"Yes" I say.

I don't know if telling him that was the right decision but I figured it would be better than lying and then him finding out later himself.I long sly like grin slides across his face.

"Great, maybe if you aren't so busy tomorrow you can battle me. Your Sneasel here looks quite strong" the man says.

I then started to back up slowly.

"Uhh thanks, Yeah. Maybe" I say before turning around and walking off in a fast paced walk out of the subway.

Once I was far away and now in a normal sized crowd on the street I decided to slow down. I also noticed Zoro loosen up as well.

My mind raced with different explanations for what had just happened. Who were these guys and how did they know that Zoro was strong. I was close to work so I let my mind settle on the idea that they were just experienced trainers and that's how the knew so I wouldn't be thinking about it all day.

"Good Morning Kye" Mr. Hon say as he was spraying pesticide on the berry's outside to stop the damn bug pokemon from nibbling away on our products.

"Morning Hon" I say back giving him a half wave as I walk inside.

I work at a privately owned Poké Mart run by Mr. Hon. It's just me and him working here currently.

His wife died years before I had ever met him and when I was looking for a job a while back he offered me this one saying that he's getting a bit too old to carry all of the new shipments of potions and berry's. We also have a few self grown berry's outside like the ones he was applying pesticides to.

I was reshelving an aisle as I heard the front door bell ring and saw Mr. Hon Walk in.

He was walking hunched over with his wooden cane, smiling with content with his fluffy white eyebrows and bald head.

I usually avoid conversation so early in the morning but his "please ask me why i'm happy" humming made me have to ask.

"Anything big happening for you today?" I ask smiling at him as I continue to stock the shelves with different potions.

"Oh yes actually, my grandaughter will be visiting me here today!"

"I didn't even know you had children of your own"

"Well, just one actually but I love him with all my heart no matter what decisions he's decided to make"

"Did he make the wrong choices in life or something?"

"He was such a smart boy and had always hoped he would go on to be a Pokémon Researcher or something he the he could use his brain to benefit life for.

Mr. Hon sighs and then walks over to the window looking at the passing civilians and busy noises.

"But, sadly he was more interested in the life of crime starting a business selling illegal drugs and coming up with new ways to give pokemon and people a buzz."

"Was?" Is he not still doing it" I ask

There was a long pause before he looked at me

"He's dead"

"Oh" I say weakly as I step away from the shelves and go behind the counter while looking at ground.

Mr. Hon then begins to smile again with his squinty eyes.

"It's fine, It was none of your doing. His wife is a very kind lady. Oblivious to what is going on around her but kind indeed."

"Not to mention his daughter seems to carry the same brain as him. Just hopefully not exactly the same brain as him" he begins to chuckle.

I smirk back at him and begin to laugh. "How old is she anyway" I ask curiously while leaning on the counter and now sitting on a chair.

"Interested are we" he says annoyingly

I swallow but keep my cool and respond . "You never know, We could one day be official family"

He chuckles again and says "I hope so, you would be good for eachother" before walking into his back office and closes the door.

Zoro gives me a raised eyebrow and I give him an eye roll back.

It's not that i'm not interested in girls, in fact i'm very interested. It's just that I haven't had the best experience with woman in my life.

The ones i've tried dating in the past just seem loud and obnoxious mostly. Acting like the world revolves around them.

I then start to drift off into thought of me when I was a little boy.

"Shh, he'll wake up if you don't slow down baby" *giggling and kissing noises

"You'd think after making this your full time job you would find a different place to fuck men for money other than in the room next to your little shit" the man says as they continue to laugh and kiss"

I here a flop of a bed that they must've laid on still screwing around. "Do you have the money baby" I hear my mom ask

at this point I was out of my bed and sitting at my door listening to what was going on.

"Uh, Well seeing as that I take you about once a month and my rent is a little past due I figured I could just pay you next month."

The kissing and noises then stopped.

"Get the fuck out!" I hear my mom say

"Come on lynn, just let me get this one for free"

"Get the fuck out of my apartment before I call the cops"

I then hear a loud thud and a grunt from the man. He must have gotten pushed onto the floor by my mom.

"BITCH WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!" the man says loudly. I then get up and open the door slowly so that no one can here me and stand at the corner of the hall looking in at the living room.

"Please stop" my mom says as she backs up on the bed toward the headboard.

"What are you going to do, call the cops and tell them that this guy won't pay me for my prostitution? Your pretty ass would go to jail with me!"

He then grabbed both her hands pushing her down on the bed and kissing her cheek.

She pushes up saying "Let go of me" not wanting to be raped.

He then sits up and slaps her across the face.

I couldn't watch anymore and my anger took control of me. "Get off my mommy" I say going over to him and attempting to pull him off.

He puts his hand on my shoulder and pushed with force bringing me to the ground. He gives me a death glare and then smiles as he gets off of my mom and walks toward me and picks me up.

He pushes me against the wall grabbing me by my neck.

"Sam please leave the boy alone he didn't do nothin' wrong to you, you hear? You will go to prison for life if you leave a mark on him"

This got his attention and looked at her still choking me out. He frowns and then looks back at me. He grunts and punches a hole in the wall with his free hand.

He lets me go and storms out of the house. At this point all I want to do is cry in my moms arms.

"Get up boy" she says

I wipe my eyes and begin to whimper.

"Oh get the fuck up he didn't hurt you that bad." She grabs my arm and pulls me up. She pushes me toward the hallway

"Go to bed, you still got school tomorrow".


End file.
